Blue are the People

 Going into today's Old Firm Rangers hadn't lost a game to that lot across the city in this fixture since the league cup final in December 2019. That was a run of 5 wins and a draw. 1 year, 8 months and 21 days, or 630 days, had passed since then. The world has gone into lockdown, opened back up, and then had another semi lockdown. The east end of Glasgow has been infested with sharks and Govan with celebrations.

It's actually got to the point where today we've felt so bad for them we've told the gaffer to stay home, we've given the captain a day off, chucked a youth team keeper in nets, and played the 3rd choice CB at RB... and yet we still extended that run.

Pre-match

In all seriousness though, the victory today was a much-needed boost for the squad and fans alike. After an emotional and record-breaking season, this year was always going to be different, but I don't think we, the fans, were quite ready for the quick crash to earth we've had. 

A loss to Dundee United in the league and an early exit from the Champions League Qualifiers, followed by struggling past an unknown team from Armenia in the Europa League qualifiers has led to many of the fan base questioning if the team were really as good as we had witnessed last season.

Add to that the struggles of new signings John Lundstram and Fashion Sakala Jnr and it didn't look as rosy as we first thought. Talk of two years of Champions League money propelling us to a gap that that lot would struggle to bridge was shelved very quickly.

What made the scenario worse was they seemed to be getting better, something we hadn't anticipated. They battered St Mirren and Dundee in the league progressed in the Europa against Alkmaar, and their new signings Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada had hit the ground running.

At least that's what the media and that lot would have you believe. However, when you looked at things objectively they'd had a similar start to us. Both had been put out of the Champions League Qualifiers in games they were expected to win, both had lost away in the league in a game they should win, both had qualified for the Europa League, both had progressed in the League Cup and both had disposed of their other league opponents to date.

Isn't it funny how two similar situations can be viewed very differently. One group was struggling and "can't play in front of crowds" while the other group was described as "flying". We were warned that Furuhashi was going to tear our defence apart, I guess much like Kent has done to theirs on a regular basis, and that Abada was already a £30m English Premier League Player and it was just a matter of when, not if, they would make a fortune from him. Kind of like Nthcam in that respect I guess, or Rogic, or McGregor, or Christie, and so on and so on.

Our fans seemed to sit in two camps on this. One half thought they were still the shell of a team, while the other half were worried that all the hyperbole surrounding "angeball" was justified. I sat very much in the middle. I told many people that it would be silly to write them off, but at the same time until we played them we wouldn't be able to judge just what they were yet.

Fortunately we wouldn't have to wait too long for that.

The Match

As far as Old Firm preparation goes this wasn't exactly ideal. The club released a statement earlier in the week saying that a number of the squad and backroom staff had tested positive for covid or had been identified as close contacts so would be isolating. Not the news you want heading into an important week where you have to travel 5hrs to play in 40-degree heat to secure Europa League football for the season.

The club didn't immediately name the players and personnel affected by this covid incident so we were left waiting until the squad flew out. Noticeably absent from the flight was Steven Gerrard, James Tavernier, Alan McGregor, John McLaughlin, Ryan Kent, Scott Wright, Calvin Bassey, and Fashion Sakala. Kemar Roofe and John Lundstram were both suspended.

This meant that we would be facing the Old Firm game with our 3rd choice goalkeeper, an out-of-form and struggling left-back, and a man in Ryan Kent that absolutely terrifies them. At least we have the 2nd best right back in Scotland to replace the captain though....

Then match day arrived. It was a huge relief to see Ryan Kent back for me because despite not being in the best of form this is a game he relishes and they are absolutely terrified of him. However, where was Nathan Patterson? It turns out he too is now in isolation and we'd be going into the biggest game of our league campaign with our 3rd choice goalkeeper and our 3rd choice centre-back playing right back.

I'm a big enough man to admit I was worried. I wasn't impressed with what I had seen of young Robbie McCrorie at Livingston and Balogun had been woeful when he needed to fill in at right-back last season. I'm also a big enough man to admit that the pair of them showed me up royally, and I'm delighted they did. Balogun had a man-of-the-match performance, I've heard Furuhashi is currently in Jimmy Bell's big washing machine as Balogun forget to take him out of his back pocket at full time, and young Robbie looked every inch the Rangers goalkeeper when called on.

When called on being the main point of that statement, because to be a Rangers goalkeeper you have to be ready to pull off a big save in the moment despite having had little to do for 89 minutes, and Robbie did that. There was one moment of naivety at the end of the match where he put the ball out of play near his box when Balogun went down, he probably should have kicked it closer to the halfway line, but other than that he was excellent. Even that moment is nitpicking.

Rangers of course won the match through a Filip Helander header after an excellent corner from Borna Barisic. Speaking of Barisic, many have come away thinking this may have been his last match in a Rangers jersey following what looked like an emotional goodbye at the end of the match. I didn't get that impression personally, I thought it was the reaction of a man who has struggled for form and finally found some that was thanking the fans for sticking by him. Gary McAllister seemed to back up this viewpoint in the press conference but I suppose we will see over the next 48 hours.

Post Match

We head into the international break now on a high. It's a good time for this as the players can get a couple of days' respite and analyse the season to date and any shortfalls. Hopefully, when they come back we can see a pick-up in performances and really start to cement some form.

One thing we will see over the coming week, and this is something we are certainly used to now after a Rangers Old Firm win, is the attempt to change the narrative and to detract from the win or to push an ulterior agenda. 

We've already begun to see this with Michael Stewart trying to make this all about big, bad Rangers fans, as usual, and Chris Sutton awarding that lot the "we had 66% possession and 3 chances" cup. It's important we don't allow them to forget though, they can have 99.9% possession and 1k chances if they want, but all that matters is who scores the most goals, and for the 6th time in the last 90 weeks that was Glasgow Rangers (Champions).

Now it's time to build on this win and make sure we secure title 56 as we continue to be the world's most successful football team.

A special mention goes to the Women's team after a 5-2 win against Aberdeen on Wednesday & a 4-0 win in the cup today as well as the Rangers B team, who with the addition of Juan Alegria, romped to a 9-0 victory over Vale of Leithen and sit 1 point off the top of the Lowland League with a game in hand. 

The Rambling Ger

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer